[460] It is to be remembered that as a patronymic Τελαμώνιος is an Aeolic formation. The rareness of forms of this type renders it highly improbable that a nickname thus formed should have been misinterpreted as a patronymic. As a nickname too should we not rather have expected Τελαμωνεύς?
[461] Two passages mention Λοκροί in connection with the other Aias; three mention Ἰθάκη or Κεφαλλῆνες in connection with Odysseus. Σπάρτη and Λακεδαίμων are mentioned in connection with Menelaos only in the Catalogue. References to Eurybates and Helen are of course not included here. The only leading Achaean heroes whose home or nationality is frequently mentioned are Achilles, Nestor and Idomeneus.
[462] For folk-tales cf. p. [258] ff. The same conditions are probably favourable both to transference and invention. The latter faculty is perhaps first displayed in lists of supernatural beings, such as those of the Nereids in Il. XVIII 39 ff. and Theog. 242 ff. (which differ a good deal). We may compare the list of dwarfs given in Völuspá.
[463] We need not discuss the identification of the Adrestos and Amphios of Il. II 830 with the famous Adrastos and Amphiaraos of the Theban story (cf. Usener, S.-B. der Akad. zu Wien, 1898, p. 37 ff.). The strangest feature in this 'discovery' is the fascination which, in spite of its obvious untenability, it seems to have exercised on subsequent writers.
[464] The evidence of the grave-mound in Lycia, cited by Prof. Murray (Rise of the Greek Epic, p. 191, note), can hardly be taken seriously. Indeed Prof. Murray himself seems to consider Sarpedon's Lycian connections at least as illusory as his connection with Troy.
[465] Diomedes no doubt figured in the story of the second attack upon Thebes. It has been suggested that this hero was also originally identical with the Bistonian Diomedes, who fed his mares with human flesh and was killed by Heracles. The value of this identification depends largely upon the question whether the Doloneia formed an original part of the story of the Iliad. That is a view which would probably gain the assent of few scholars—even of those who believe that the Doloneia is not much later than the rest of the Iliad in its final form. The other arguments are of little consequence. Diomedes displays a propensity for capturing chariots—a feature which perhaps gave rise to the adventure with Rhesos; but the same remark is true of Antilochos. He fights also with the 'Thracian' god Ares, as well as with Aphrodite. But it is clear that the feud with these deities really belongs to Athene, Diomedes' hereditary guardian. In later stories, relating to the east of Italy, there may have been a confusion between the two heroes; and it is scarcely impossible that here and there Diomedes of Argos took over a cult belonging to his namesake. If so we shall have to suppose that the Bistonian Diomedes was originally an Illyrian rather than a Thracian hero.
[466] The most highly developed use of fiction occurs probably when the poets are dealing with unknown regions or peoples, as in the story of Odysseus (cf. p. [297] f.). But I am not aware that there is any evidence for the existence of poems on wholly fictitious subjects.
[467] On this subject see Note VII.
[468] Cf. J. Grimm, Teutonic Mythology4 (Engl. Transl.), p. 936 f.
[469] Cf. W. Grimm, Deutsche Heldensage, p. 40 (and passim); J. Grimm, op. cit., p. 1183.